Proposal description

This is a cross-post from Dash Forum﻿
This Public Relations proposal goes hand-in-hand with our business development strategy as we share with the media the different partnerships and integrations we execute. Public relations directly supports business development, since joint promotion is a central source of value Dash provides to potential partners with whom we are negotiating. Public relations also enables Dash to extract more benefit from the partnerships as we announce them.

We have a road-map of additional announcements planned and we believe it is therefore essential to retain a professional PR firm to represent Dash in both the digital currency and mainstream media. After careful consideration, we have selected Wachsman PR as our PR partner for the next phase of our growth.

Wachsman PR is a highly professional firm located in New York that enjoys a strong reputation in the digital currency industry and has demonstrated a high level of professionalism the market has come to expect of the Dash project. Wachsman PR represents many high-profile crypto clients such as Kraken, Purse.io, Overstock's T0 and many others.

Though Wachsman PR is reputable in the industry, they agreed to provide Dash an opportunity to preview their services rather than simply relying on their track record and referrals. They agreed to conduct a trial month of PR services for Dash ahead of us officially hiring them (which we are now planning to do) for a longer-term agreement.

Based on our experience thus far, we highly recommend proceeding with a contract. Wachsman PR staff have all been professional and impressive. They have provided insights and advice on how to extend our reach into mainstream media, helped shape, revise and prepare our d10e presentations and handouts, and have prepared a longer-term PR strategy. They also aren’t afraid to tell us when they disagree with us… They don’t say “yes” to everything we suggest, and tell us what they think is a better approach along with the reasons why. In short, they are adding tremendous value. In just two weeks they have done two press releases with us and obtained an impressive amount of media placements for the project, which I’ve outlined below.

We would like to hire Wachsman PR for an initial four month engagement starting September 1st. The cost of the proposal is $6,000 per month and the entire four month contract will cost $24,000. As a portion of the funding ($880) is already set aside from the July budget “PR - Fall Campaign Pre-Funding”, we will only need an additional $5,120 to fund the initial month’s services. However, as protection against currency fluctuation between now and August 5th, we would like to request the full $6,000 and carry any balance forward to September to be used for the same purposes.

Discussion: Should we fund this proposal?

Changing my vote on this one. Solarminer is quite convincing -- it's true that Amanda's show has done more than the PR firms ever did. And they cost literally 7 times as much as her show.

Not saying these funds should necessarily go to Amanda if she doesn't ask for them, but rather -- what *similar* efforts could also be funded?

If she's taken care of our YouTube presence, what sphere should be taken care of next?

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Solarminer4 points,1 year ago

Amanda and the Dash Detailed have done more for PR than any of these "PR Companies". Have you asked her what she could do with $6k/month? Or maybe asked the community what we could do for marketing with $6k? Just throwing $1,000 on google ads would be easy and effective. The professional PR agencies like Vanbex and Transform PR have proven to be very ineffective. All the less expensive community driven programs have worked better.

How about we focus on something that people can use? Like an Iphone Dash Wallet on the App Store? At this point it would be more PR than any PR company.

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TanteStefana0 points,1 year ago

I think this is a bit unfair. This is a different point of attack, talking to business insiders, getting articles written in journals that are more general business or finance oriented. Amanda is great, but her audience is still other crypto/anarchists. Nothing wrong with that - we need to reach out to the crypto base, but Dash wants to take over the world, and you don't do that by being cubbyholed.

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DashAdvocate0 points,1 year ago

It is not unfair at all. I get that Amanda targets an audience different than what you want to reach, but that doesn't mean we skip the 'grass-roots' or 'Guerilla' style marketing a blow money on a big PR firm that is far less effective than Amanda. We need to take a more responsible approach with the budget funds. Find another 'Amanda' that has a different style/audience and fund that person. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

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qwizzie0 points,1 year ago

i agree, its a bit unfair. specifically the remark about the iPhone Dash wallet as we all know that app is long done and ready but it is Apple that rejected it. Not much that can be done there but wait and retry it in time.

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Solarminer0 points,1 year ago

An Apple wallet that is not on App store is near 0 value to users. There are currently 300 Dashes looking for a new home for anyone that can put the first Dash wallet with IX on the App store. That isn't from a budget proposal, that is from community donations. Now that is desire!

I have yet to see a donation to hire a professional marketing company.

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Dworf0 points,1 year ago

The critics is not unfair. The simple question behind it is what would be more effective in the long run. Doubtless Amanda does a unique great job with a outreach of 9,231 abonnents and 647,959 views in her channel. By comparing this proposal (651 DASH) with hers (https://www.dashwhale.org/p/dash-youtube-show 123 DASH) it is obvious that this is little overpaid. Just to remember - Tesla for example does not spend a single dollar on professional marketing campaigns.

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n00bkid1 point,1 year ago

Seems a bit on the spendy side, but will vote 'yes' for this test run to see what comes of it.

Yes, the Mycelium and TiGoCTM press releases were good and well-distributed, compared to past efforts.

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kaene0 points,1 year ago

I would appreciate more details, transparency and reasoning the budget. If I understand it right, the "BSDEV-GENERAL-FUND", "BSDEV-GENERAL-201608" and this proposal are all for the same ongoing project? We are talking about more than $18k and more to come. Thanks.

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babygiraffe (proposal owner)0 points,1 year ago

The two business development proposals fund to the same address and are simply monthly extension of the same request. I am planning to use a more standard format going forward for the proposal names.

This proposal is separate. It is NOT for business development. It is for hiring a public relations firm. That said, they are related. A big part of our business development efforts is being able to go to potential partners and say "you will also get free publicity out of a partnership with Dash. We are working with a PR firm that can place content and help you (and Dash) get the most out of the integration." In other words, having a reputable PR firm representing us is a big help and big selling point to close new deals.

As far as the costs, they are the same as our previous contract, and the same as the PR firm that Dash World hired. Yet we perceive this firm to be more effective and better at helping drive our PR strategy.

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jsp3cs150 points,1 year ago

From a observer point of view, I can definitely a bit more media news hit my feeds for the past 2 weeks for so.